Peter Cregeen

Peter Cregeen is a distinguished director, producer and executive. Initially intending to make a career as an actor, he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and became a director in the theatre. He directed many popular series for BBC television, including Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962), Z Cars (1962), Softly Softly (1966) and Colditz (1972). He then moved into production on The Onedin Line (1971) and Wings (1977). He then produced Saturday Night Thriller (1982) and Mitch (1984) for London Weekend Television. Cregeen is perhaps most notable for his role as a director, producer and then executive producer of the innovative Thames Television police series The Bill (1984), which did much to popularize hand-held camera technique in British drama. He moved to the BBC in 1989 to accept the position of Head of Series. One of Cregeen's most notable decisions on taking the post was to cancel the corporation's 26-year-old science-fiction adventure series Doctor Who (1963), which had narrowly survived cancellation in 1985 when Michael Grade had been Controller of BBC One. The series had dropped further in the ratings since and Cregeen decided the series needed a long rest if it was ever to compete with the high production values of American science-fiction. Some observers, including former Doctor Who (1963) girl Katy Manning and future executive producer Mal Young, believe Cregeen did exactly the right thing for the ailing series and enabled it to eventually come back and be reinvented by the widely celebrated genius of a writer, Russell T. Davies. Cregeen stayed as Head of Series at the BBC until 1993. He would end up going back to directing, including episodes of The Bill (1984), Midsomer Murders (1997) and Casualty (1986). Cregeen has also returned to his first love, the theatre, as a director. He has served on the Councils of The Royal Television Society, BAFTA, the Directors' Guild of Great Britain and Tara Arts. He has brought his wealth of experience to teaching at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.